To Kill A Mockingbird: Reader's Notebook #1

To be fair, I seriously thought this book was going be boring. In 4th or 5th grade (I can't remember which) we read a book that took place in the times of war when America was young. I can't remember the title, but in short, it sucked. It had a horrible plot that jumped around a ton, following many years of a boys life who loved fossils. In the end, he died to a lightning strike because of dinosaur bones, when he had tried to bring some home from a field during a lightning storm.

This taught me three things.
   1. Don't trust books that take place during young America.
   2. Books that have a hundred pages or so that look short are lying to your face. If you aren't                    interested in them, then it feels like 1000 pages.
   3. Boys back before I was born were idiots.

So when I saw "To Kill A Mockingbird", I went through a mental checklist.

"Well, it looks to be a little more then 100 pages."
*Turns to back of book and reads description*
"Well it takes place in young America."
*Flips through first couple of pages*
"And it has quite a few young boys... I'm no English professor, but I think these may be the exact same thing!"
~Carters thoughts, Day 5346, Time 9:05 am

So these were the thought running through my head on Day 5346 of my life. But then, just like Chuck Yaegar when he broke the sound barrier, this book broke the set of rules that had been in my head since the 4th or 5th grade. For once, I am actually enjoying something that used to be poison to me. Almost like Jem on page 80-81, when "Less then 2 weeks later we found a whole package of chewing gum, which we enjoyed, the fact that everything on the Radley Place was poison having slipped Jems memory."

And I guess I owe that to page 29, where Scout expresses her frustration about her teacher, "Saved by the bell, Miss Caroline watched the class filter out for lunch. As I was the last to leave, I saw her sink down into her chair and bury her head in her arms. Had her conduct been more friendly to me, I would have felt sorry for her." I relate to this because I have had trouble with a handful of teachers when it comes to respect for each other.

So after reading page 29, I started to read more. I feel bad for judging this book by its cover, because I am actually enjoying it, and to be fair I do think it deserves its Pulitzer Prize. When Scout says "If the remainder of the school year was fraught with drama as the first day, perhaps it would be mildly entertaining, but the prospect of spending nine months refraining from reading and writing made me think of running away." on page 37, I couldn't help but think that if I had skipped 4th or 5th grade, then I wouldn't have judged this book as bad, just like if she had skipped first grade then she wouldn't have had to learn how to read and write all over again.